Obama Works To Secure Legacy in Gesture toward Asia

It is a “moral obligation” to heal the wounds of war, said Barack Obama, summarizing the spirit of his visit to Laos this week—the first presidential visit to this country that the United States bombed heavily during the Vietnam War (1954-1975).*

Three months before, Obama also became the first president to go to Hiroshima, one of two cities the United States hit with atomic bombs during World War II (1939-1945).

In the final stretch of his presidency, unable to inspire political unity on the home front, Obama is pursuing reconciliation between the United States and other nations. And also with the past.

In addition to gestures toward Japan and Laos, we have the rapprochement with Cuba and the nuclear deal with Iran. These build a positive agenda that echoes the vision of the early days in Obama’s tenure, when he was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize, not for his actions but for a vision which, per many critics, did not materialize.

“Cuba was a substantial change in foreign policy, and the visit to Laos is something more symbolic. One way or another, he seems ready to tie up some of the loose ends from American involvement in the Cold War,” writer/journalist and author of “The Obamians” James Mann told Folha de S. Paulo, with regard to President Obama’s foreign policy.**

A Great Mass of Bombs

In Laos, Obama lamented the destruction resulting from the historical attacks by the United States, attacks that dropped two million tons of bombs on the country at the height of the Vietnam War, more than on Japan and Germany in World War II.

According to a per capita calculation, the Asian country of Laos was the most heavily bombarded in history.

As in his visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima in May, during which he honored the victims of the atomic bomb, Obama did not explicitly make a plea for forgiveness, but instead issued a call for reflection that such violence might be avoided.

He pledged that $90 million (288 million reais) will be offered to Laos in the next three years to assist in deactivating bombs that did not explode but still present risk. There are 80 million of these bombs in Laos. “Remnants of war continue to destroy lives,” he said.

Going beyond a “moral obligation,” Obama makes savvy calculations in global strategy by investing in his positive agenda toward Asia. The “pivot” to Asia serves as one of two pillars in his foreign policy: designed to give more weight to the region in American diplomatic strategy, it is also seen in action as an attempt to slow the rise of China.

But Obama has had his hands full with the key piece of this pivot, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the greatest trade agreement in history, signed by the United States and eleven other countries in October of 2015 and covering 40 percent of the world economy.

The two candidates to succeed Obama’s presidency, Hillary Clinton (Democrat like him), and Donald Trump (Republican), oppose the agreement, which has become a sort of villain of the campaign. Without the approval of the United States, the agreement will not come into force.

Although the potential presidency of Hillary Clinton is seen as a continuation of Barack Obama’s legacy, some predict that the ex-secretary of state would be rather less inclined to adopt his “peace and love” agenda.

“I think she is more aggressive in foreign policy than Obama and more tied to the notion that the United States is indispensable,” says Mann.

*Editor’s Note: Dates provided are those used in the original article. Sources offer differing dates for the duration of the conflict in Vietnam, as there was no official declaration of war between Vietnam and the United States.

**Editor’s Note: This quote, though accurately translated, could not be verified.